Fantasy Hockey - Coming up on the Halfway Point

[Asher]

I'm too lazy to look it up, but not too long ago someone from Edmonton...coughcough...on this board was making a big deal about Calgary's attendance, especially in the late 90s/early 2000.

Thought this was interesting.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/blues/story/2C2E6E089F4930648625724B00183E42?OpenDocument

The six Canadian clubs returned from the lockout stronger than ever and continue to draw well. Edmonton is the laggard, and it is playing to 98.5 percent of building capacity.

You make it to game 7 of the stanley cup last season, and you can't even fill your stadiums at a time when money is everywhere in Alberta? Wow.

[notyoueither]

I've gotta wonder where they get their info from. It doesn't jive with other information.

[Flubber]

Is it to early to say the Oil suck tonight? Its 2-2 with 7 minutes left against the Jovanaski-less Coyotes and thats just not good enough. They may well win and the refs haven't been their friends but the OIL SHOULD be able to dominate this pretty weak team

[Flubber]

late Oil goal so they should win but it was not pretty

[notyoueither]

Nothing is coming easy. Goal post, cross bar, goal called back... the officiating being... hard to understand...

OTOH, the Oilers are having a crisis of confidence. They go ahead by a couple and then the other guys score and it's nail biting time.

[Ninot]

Habs win again

[KrazyHorse]

What's really frightening is that they're 5 points out of first and yet a 5-win streak is the best they've done all season.

That's consistency...

[Asher]

The Flames are slated to play the Avalanche at home Feb. 15 and 17 and are to meet again in Denver Feb. 20.

The rescheduled Avs-Flames game is likely to take place around the same time.

[cinch]

Originally posted by notyoueither
I've gotta wonder where they get their info from. It doesn't jive with other information.

Yeah. Have these people ever tried to buy a ticket the day before an Oilers game?

[cinch]

NHL considering significant overhaul
Gary Bettman

Bob McKenzie

12/22/2006 10:51:08 AM

The NHL has been trying for weeks to tinker with its schedule configuration, but is now considering a significant overhaul of the face of the league that includes realignment and a reduction in the number of divisions from six to four.

Nothing is carved in stone at this point, but the NHL is floating an aggressive trial balloon to its governors for consideration. Earlier this week, six club executives, (a mix of governors, teams presidents and GMs), representing the six current divisions met in New York with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and brainstormed to produce a new-look alignment and schedule that they're taking back to other clubs in their respective divisions for feedback.

If there's enough support for it - 20 of the 30 governors would have to approve it - the changes that would take effect next season could be approved at a board meeting during the NHL All-Star Game festivities in Dallas in late January.

Sources tell TSN the proposal includes the following:

A reduction in the number of divisions from six to four. There would still be an Eastern Conference and a Western Conference, but there were would one eight-team division and one seven-team division in each conference.

The top two teams in each division would be guaranteed the top four playoff seeds within the conference with four wild card playoff berths going to the teams with the next highest point totals.

The four new divisions would be configured primarily along the lines of time zones. The theory is not only would this benefit teams in terms of travel, but could also boost TV ratings because game times in the same time zone would be more favorable.

The current Northeast Division (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Buffalo and Boston) would remain intact and add two other teams to form a seven-team division. Sources say Pittsburgh is one of those teams that would join the Northeast teams.

The current Atlantic Division (the three New York area teams plus Philadelphia) would be melded together with four teams from the current Southeast Division (all but one of Washington, Carolina, Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Florida).

The eight-team division in the Western Conference would feature all teams in Pacific or Mountain time zones (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Colorado and Phoenix).

The seven-team division in the Western Conference would feature teams that are in either the Central or Eastern time zones.

As for the schedule, it is said to be a little more complicated than it currently is, because of the uneven number of teams in the divisions, but each team will apparently play its division rivals six times each and its conference rivals either three or four times each and non-conference teams once each.

The theory is there will be some reduction in travel because of the geographic alignment by time zone, but every team will see every team at least once over the course of the season.

It will be interesting to see what feedback is provided by the various clubs as the schedule has become a hot-button issue with many teams.

"The eight-team division in the Western Conference would feature all teams in Pacific or Mountain time zones (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Colorado and Phoenix). "

Sweet Christ!

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Asher
The Flames are slated to play the Avalanche at home Feb. 15 and 17 and are to meet again in Denver Feb. 20.

The rescheduled Avs-Flames game is likely to take place around the same time.

Perhaps but according to Peter Maher (voice of the Flames) that time frame is unlikely due to Denver nuggets games which leave the only available date being one where the Avs would play 3 games in 3 nights (and in Calgary, Vancouver and Denver IIRC). Apparently 3 games in 3 nights violates the CBA.

Yup -- I looked at the sched and the Avs are in Vancouver on the 18th so that makes the 19th pretty tough on the Avs!! A 21st date would require BOTH teams to play 3 in 3.

I actually heard that Feb 5th was being considered. neither team plays the 4th or 7th and both have home dates on the 6th

[cinch]

Also, regarding the article I posted above:

I wonder if this means they'll bring back the named divisions? Tradition reborn!

[Flubber]

Originally posted by cinch
Also, regarding the article I posted above:

I wonder if this means they'll bring back the named divisions? Tradition reborn!

I doubt it-- Most Americans wouldn't care about the Adams, Norris , Smythe or whatever names. I actually don't love this idea all that much.

The best idea I liked was one put forth by the Hockey news guy Bob Mackenzie. I don't recall all the detail but it essentially was that teams would play something like1-2 less games against division rivals and 1 less against their own conference.

Then you would play once against 2 of the divisions in the other conference (home with one and away with the other) and TWICE with your linked division (home and away). The linked divisions were actually pretty obvious and geographic

NE and NW-- See the canadians Leafs and Sens once EACH year

Atlantic- Central--So the NY-Penn plays the midwest

SW-Pacific-- Sunbelts all around


I like it since I think you should play everyone at least once if you are truly one league but I also like the idea of fostering a little bit of cross country competitiion

[Asher]

McCabe's sooooooooooooo awful this game.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Tingkai


Ya know it must be the high altitude in Calgary that makes people forget their hockey sense.

Calgary ranked 18th
Chicago ranked 24th
Columbus ranked 27th

What do the three Cs have in common? They're all crap.

Hmm-- that quote was Dec 13 so not that long ago.

CHICAGO (AP) -Peter Bondra picked a perfect time to score his 500th NHL goal.

Bondra became the 37th player in league history to reach the 500-goal mark, connecting early in the third period to snap a 1-all tie and the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 on Friday night.

......

Bryan Smolinski, who had a short-handed goal, and Brent Seabrook scored for Chicago, which improved to 8-2-3 under head coach Denis Savard.

AHEM

OH ya-- Columbus and Calgary are 7-2-1 in their last 10 while Chicgo is 5-2-3. Toronto?? 3-6-1

Tingkai-- I keep saying you have to look at not only where a team sits in the standings today but for trends in their play to see where they are going. You looked at the 3 C's and saw "crap" based on where they sat in the standings. I looked at more and saw teams on the rise.

Now who is that doesn't have any hockey sense?